Stargazing
by Tan Kimiko
Summary: [Oneshot] 2nd part of The War Trilogy. Harry is burdened with the war and the safety of his friends. However, it is from the youngest Weasley that he learns that not everything is his alone to carry. [HPGW]


**Harry Potter© J.K. Rowling, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Books, Warner Bros.**

Note: This is the second part of The War Trilogy. The first part is "Over A Cup of Coffee", a Draco/Hermione ship, and you won't understand some of the parts in the story if you didn't read that first. But, of course, if you don't like that pair and want to read this story, continue.

* * *

**Stargazing  
**_A Harry and Ginny Fanfiction_

* * *

Ginny was nervous. _What if Harry doesn't want to be disturbed?_ According to Firenze, who still resided in the castle, Harry was down in the old Divination classroom, stargazing. Of course, with the blizzard blowing hard outside, it was impossible to spot any stars. With the war temporarily on hold because of the weather, everyone was trying to rest until the next battle.

She passed Malfoy and Hermione on the corridor. Malfoy, who was wounded, that didn't heal quickly even after a potion was administered, still needed help in walking, since the long gash was on his left leg. He refused to use a crutch, and that left Hermione to help him, who, Ginny noticed, didn't mind at all.

"Hello, Ginny." Hermione greeted. "How's everything in the infirmary?"

"Stable, so I thought I should rest before the battle started again."

Malfoy winced when he accidentally placed some of his weight on his leg. "Weasley, is your brother and Potter bordering on insanity? I swear, just after the last battle, they were laughing with blood dripping from their foreheads and Potter with a bloodied arm."

Hermione gave a small smile. "Malfoy, I told you to keep off that bad leg. And Harry and Ron are not insane. On the contrary, it's their way from _getting_ insane."

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard."

Ginny grinned. "I'll go on ahead. I still have things to do before I rest." She said, waving and walking past them.

"At least I got Nott's father good for this. I shot him the Killing Curse." She heard Malfoy say through gritted teeth. "Merlin, it hurts like bloody hell!"

"Good. I was thinking of getting him on the next battle, but it seems like you beat me to it—again." Hermione told him.

"Granger, you were _not_ looking at your back after that Death Eater wounded your wand arm, so what else could I do? Watch you die? Have you got any brains up there in your pretty little head or had the war mashed it up so bad? I swear, woman…" Malfoy's voice faded away as Ginny turned a corner, walking farther from the two.

_You are surely my courage.__  
You are surely my light._

Harry lay down on the straw-covered floor, his eyes looking up unseeing at the bewitched ceiling. It had been one year after the start of the war, and here he was, still alive and breathing. The stars twinkled down at him but he didn't notice. Firenze was very kind to lend him his living quarters for a while. The centaur created this classroom back in fifth year, and continued to tend to it since it felt like living in the Forbidden Forest.

Back at the start of the war, Harry was in desperate need of a place to just meditate. It was then Firenze noticed this and offered his quarters for him to use anytime except during the centaur's sleeping time, which Harry was thankful, was not yet for two and a half hours. Tonight, though, he wasn't meditating. He just found himself…lost.

There was a knock on the door.

"Harry?"

He blinked. Ginny.

She opened the door a bit, just enough for her head to poke in. Her shoulder-length hair was in a messy coif, with some red tendrils escaping. Ginny looked apprehensive at entering, her eyes landing on his form on the floor before she entered hesitantly and closed the door behind her. She was twitching, Harry noticed.

"Ginny? What are you doing here?" He asked, propping himself up on his elbows. "Is there something wrong? Is everything all right?"

"Fine, Harry." She said, walking nearer to him. "Nothing's amiss. I just came to find you. The infirmary is stable, so I thought that I could need some rest. I'm just here to remind you that you need to rest, too."

"Oh." He lay down again. Ginny didn't know what to do, so she slowly turned back to the door. Harry's voice stopped her. "Have you noticed how Hermione is behaving around Malfoy?" She took this as an invitation to stay and sat beside his lying form.

"Or, how Malfoy is behaving around Hermione." Ginny said. "Of course, everyone has noticed the change in both of them. How could you not? Something happened between the two that brought them closer to each other. Malfoy's less of a prat and Hermione's more confident."

Harry snorted. _Less than a prat. Yeah, right._ "I just noticed their…closeness a few weeks after the war started. I mentioned this to Ron, who told me that they were like that ever since before we walked out to the field to fight. I didn't notice it. Was I really that blind?"

"Of course not. You just had a lot in your mind at that time, that's all."

_A lot in my mind…_ "Yeah, I suppose." He murmured.

"It's been one year, Harry." Ginny said. "Do you think the war would end anytime soon? I miss the old days, when we would just normally wake up and eat at the Great Hall, and think about the three-feet long essays we need to pass…" She turned to look at him. "I'm supposed to be in seventh year now, worrying about my NEWTS. But I'm in the infirmary, worrying about the people who are injured and my family out there, fighting."

Harry let her words sink in. _And me, I'm supposed to be finding a job, trying to be an Auror with Ron, having fun while we're young…and where am I? In the middle of a war, fighting for my life._ The words held bitterness.

"Harry?"

"Sometimes…I wish I wasn't, you know, me." Harry said aloud. "Sometimes, I wish I was a normal half-blood wizard, without the worries of this god-forsaken war. I'm Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the only one who could possibly defeat Voldemort, and probably die doing it." The stars held him in. "Sometimes, I just wish that I could be somebody else."

Ginny nodded. "I know how you feel."

"You do?" Skepticism was in his voice.

She chuckled. "I do, just not to that extreme level. There were times I wish I'm not me. Maybe, if I could be better, I could help you or my family out there. I know hexes and curses, but I don't think I could bring myself to do the forbidden ones. Maybe, if I had enough courage…but I don't. So I'm in the infirmary, helping."

"You admitted that you aren't brave. Well, in my opinion, that takes a lot of courage."

Ginny smiled. "We each have a different definition of bravery."

Harry chuckled. "It seems so."

_The beam of light I found inside the darkness...__  
Came from your gentle eyes, which looked at me.__  
With a tenderness that made me want to cry...__  
It softly showed me a reason to live._

She suddenly perked up. "Oh, what are we doing, talking like this? I forgot to give you your medicine." Ginny took a small vial inside her pocket and handed it to him. The potion inside was a dark brown and looked an awful like mud. Harry eyed it warily and took it, opening the cork. "Harry, it won't kill you." Ginny said with amusement.

"Yeah, but it'll kill my taste buds." Harry grimaced when he caught a whiff. It smelled like boiled cabbage that spoiled after being left in heat for a long time. "How could anyone brew this stuff? Are you sure the ones who did this knew what they were doing?"

She glared at him, crossing her arms. "Harry James Potter, you _will_ drink that, or I will stuff the whole thing down your throat."

He gulped. "Ginny, I was only joking." Harry said, drinking it down. He choked, coughing then smiled shakily. "See?"

"Hmph." She took the bottle from him and corked it again.

Harry relaxed again, still tasting the potion. _God, that tastes really bad._ "Ginny?"

"Yes?"

"Malfoy's 'pratiness' did not lessen, just to tell you."

_Even if we part, even if we are separated,__  
My heart will fly towards you.__  
You are surely my wings.__  
Your love is the constellations over the earth._

"That's the constellation Cancer. I remember Firenze pointing that out in fifth year. And that one's the Scorpio. Oh, there's Virgo."

"You're having fun with this, aren't you?" Ginny asked. She was now lying beside Harry to look at the constellations he kept pointing. Some of them she knew while others she didn't. She was never much into Divination and stargazing anyway. But doing this with Harry was quite interesting.

Harry nodded. "These are times when I need to get away from it all—the war, the deaths, everything. I'd ask Firenze if I could come in here and he'd let me. He knows why I'm doing this and he understands. Looking up here, even though it's bewitched, makes me feel like nothing's wrong." He was silent for a moment. "At times when I feel like I'm edging towards insanity, I search for things that brings normalcy. Like laughter and jests. You know, to bring balance to the tears and blood."

"I wish I've thought of that." Ginny sighed. "While I'm in the infirmary, everything's so busy, me running around, doing this and that…sometimes I want to shout, cry and stamp my foot. But I can't, because time is gold. If I leave one wounded person there so I could just have a moment or two alone…it could mean their lives."

"It's that busy?"

"Yes, unfortunately. This has been the longest resting moment I've had in a year." She admitted. "Just think: this blizzard's been blowing harder and harder, and it's been four days. The battle hasn't started yet and the patients are recovering. There are more bed spaces than injured ones."

"I can see more of my comrades walking around the hallways, for that matter. It's wonderful to see them up and about."

_If I try to walk on alone, my heart becomes cold.__  
I cannot return to the way I was before we met.__  
This painful feeling of love I have,__  
Are they for eternity?_

"Harry?"

"Yes?"

Ginny turned on her side, facing him. "When you're going to go out to the battlefield and fight, what do you feel?"

"Fear. Anxiousness. Worry." Harry replied all too easily. "I'm scared, thinking about what I'm going to face out there. Then there's this impatient feeling inside that I want to see the Death Eaters, want to cast curses and hexes, so it can all be over. And then I worry, because I don't know if all of my comrades would survive." He turned his head and looked at her eyes. "And when after the battle I hear no one dead, I rejoice inside, because that meant we've done well." A shadow fell over his green eyes. "But that hasn't happened for a long time."

She nodded. "I heard. Just recently, Lavender didn't come back." Lavender Brown was Ron's girlfriend, and her brother was overcome with grief when he heard of the news.

"Ron and I went looking for her with Justin and Hermione." He continued. "We had a hard time finding her. Justin eventually found her hidden near the Forbidden Forest. Lavender was still holding her wand in her hand tightly, but she was dead, by loss of blood. She hid there so the Death Eaters wouldn't kill her, so she could return, but she…she didn't…make it.

"Ron was devastated and held her as he cried. Lavender had regret on her face, probably from not making it back and giving us grief. She was always trying hard not to give us any more sorrows. She was fast and capable…anyway, we decided to burn her body. Hermione conjured an urn and Ron placed her ashes inside and sent it to her remaining family."

Ginny nodded. "I knew of that. Ron was crying so hard as he tied the ropes for the two owls to hold that it took him more than fifteen minutes to do it. I was there, looking at him. He wouldn't want me to see him like that, but I had to be close." She returned on her back. "Her family scattered her ashes, I heard, saying so that she could be anywhere and everyone she wanted to be."

He gave a weak smile. "That makes a lot of sense."

They lay there in silence for a while.

"Harry?"

"Yes?"

"Where do you suppose Lavender is now?"

"I believe, Ginny, that she's somewhere in Hogwarts, giving comfort and cheering us on."

"Really?"

"That or Lavender's somewhere having a ghostly tan."

_No matter what happens, no matter who interferes,__  
I will continue only believe in your eyes.__  
You are surely my courage.__  
You are surely my light._

"I did think of quitting this war, you know."

Ginny was so surprised that she bolted upright to stare down at him. "_You did?"_ She asked incredulously. _Somehow I can't even think of him _ever_ quitting something! It's just not in him._

"How can that be so surprising? I mean, it's not like _I_ want to be in this war. It's not like I _crave_ for this adventure that can very probably end my life anytime. It's not like _you_ wanted to be in this war, either!" Harry then sighed. "It's just that…I have dreams, too. I want to live, bend the rules, _be a teenager_. I am, after all, just nineteen."

And she understood. She knew why he couldn't abandon the war, with everyone looking to him for a sign… "It's because you're a Gryffindor—a true Gryffindor." Ginny breathed and Harry shrugged, but the answer was reflected in his eyes. "I know, Harry, and I understand, that you can't deny what was happening and you couldn't turn your back from it; that it happened to you and you can't help it. Even though everything's on your shoulders—as you said—you're still nineteen."

Harry fidgeted, because he knew she hit a spot.

"I think of my family, too, out there, doing their hardest. There were times I thought I could do nothing to help you." She continued. "But then…but then I'd remember that I am." Ginny turned his head to look directly at his face, at his eyes. "I'd remember, Harry, that I am in the infirmary, _saving lives._ I may not be out there with the others in battle, but I'm doing a battle entirely different from your own. I battle to save comrades and friends from death. I'm helping _you_ in my own little way."

She stood and Harry immediately sat up, stunned. "Just like everyone is helping you on _their_ own little way." Ginny's eyes softened. "You shouldn't shoulder everything, you know. You're not alone. Everyone here, doing those things assigned to them or battling with you out there…they're making the way easier for you—they're taking some of your burden, the ones that they know they can help carry. Don't push companions away; it's doing more harm than good. They're there to _help_, to lighten your load."

Ginny kneeled down so that she could look at him face-to-face. "Oh, Harry, you know it, but you don't _realize_ it. They're not additional worries to carry…Harry, they're your stepping-stones and your guides. Everyone is going to lead you to victory someday, so don't..." She let her emotions show and a few tears leaked from her eyes. "So don't isolate yourself. They're here. I'm here. We're all here."

After her speech, Harry swallowed a lump forming on his throat and failed. "Ginny Weasley, you're a year younger than me, but it seems like you have all the answers. How do you ever do it?" He asked hoarsely, trying to lighten the deep emotions surrounding them.

Ginny laughed. "That's what you get for having six older brothers and you're youngest and only female. You have to fight your way." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "You need to rest—I need to rest. I'll just…go on first, okay?"

"Ginny?"

She stopped from standing and looked at him. "Yes?"

"Can you…can you _stay?_ For a while," He amended when her eyes widened. "I'd really appreciate it. I'd like to have some company."

Ginny's heart turned at his voice and plea. Then tenderness seeped into her eyes. "Of course…anything for you."

* * *

_If you ever get hurt, then I want to raise both my hands...__  
Like wings into the sky and protect you.__  
The sorrow that overflows from heart__  
Wets my cheeks softly, but..._

_Marry me?_

_Of course…anything for you._

Ginny smiled, leaning against Harry's chest as they looked up the night and saw the heavens sparkling down at them in the form of stars. Her hair was longer, touching the middle of her back, thick and glossy red locks.

The war was over, after two and a half years of fighting. It was already one year after the last battle—the ultimate fight, between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort. The Dark Lord was finally dead, defeated. Harry barely escaped alive. It was Ginny who always stayed beside him while he struggled to live, and won that fight against death.

Months and months flew by. Harry was slow in recovery, but he finally did in six months. There were some scars now, newer than his lightning-bolt-shaped one on his forehead, but just another memory, a thing of the past.

They were somewhere inside the Malfoy property, a bit far from the manor to give them some privacy. The property was huge, acres wide. Two horses were tied beneath a nearby tree, resting. Harry owed this privilege to his friend, the now Hermione Malfoy. She and Draco Malfoy had been married for five months now.

And some time soon…

Harry looked down on Ginny's hand, and embraced her closer. The glittering diamond solitaire engagement ring he presented to her just this night was on her left ring finger, sparkling like the stars, and a symbol of his upcoming future.

_Even if we part, even if we are separated,__  
My heart will fly towards you.__  
You are surely my wings.__  
Your love is the constellations over the earth._

**_Finis_**

Author's Notes: The song is the English translation to the Japanese song, "Chijou no Seiza". The English title is "Constellations of the Earth". This is the opening song of the anime "Fushigi Yuugi: Eikouden". When I read the lyrics, it seemed fitting at that time for Harry and Ginny.

Harry, here, I played as a character weary of the war. With him being the only person who could, at least in the book, possibly defeat Voldemort, he has a lot of burdens on him. And let us not forget that Harry is only a teenager going twenty, where most of us are usually still studying and basically carefree. With deaths of his comrades, it added some of his pain.

As you have read, Ginny in this story is a mature woman with a very broad mind. It isn't unusual, because quote, "That's what you get when you have six older brothers and you're the youngest and only female." Added to the fact that women mature faster than men, it really isn't a big surprise. With her younger than Harry and could see the ravages of war, well, she grew up fairly quickly.

The timeline of the last scene was the same as the one on "Over a Cup of Coffee". Up next, the third and the last part of "The War Trilogy". We have Ron Weasley, "Body of the Trio", and Luna Lovegood.


End file.
